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Re: Inquiry Regarding Handling PDF Accessibility Challenges in School District Practices

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From: Elizabeth Thomas
Date: Dec 6, 2023 3:15PM

For any of these documents, can you post the content in a format other than PDF? For example, if the school lunch nutrition data is data tables, could you instead post these as CSV or Excel files? Then you would just need to set up the structure once, and as long you keep the same structure, you wouldn’t need to remediate those files every month. We have done this for many of our regularly updated excel files, and it has saved a lot of time and work. (And I also think it’s easier to read a data table in excel than in a PDF).
We also have some annual data files that come from SAS (and are then posted as PDFs). For these files, there is a lot of work done in SAS so that even if each PDF isn’t manually remediated, they still are very accessible.
The technical documents are a little more challenging. When working with vendor-created content, we have included language in the contract about meeting our accessibility guidelines (current version of WCAG at Level AA and PDF U/A). However, even then, we have had issues with documents having pretty significant barriers for people with disabilities.
Do the technical documents usually have the same general sections and format every month? Could you provide a template that is as accessible as possible and guidelines for how the vendor should handle graphs, images, tables, etc? For example, provide guidelines such as “don’t indicate meaning using only color. In a column graph where the series are indicated using different colors, add data labels with the series names.”
I could talk about PDFs all day, so I’ll stop now!
I hope some of this was at least a little helpful.
-Elizabeth Thomas
New Jersey Department of Education

> On Dec 6, 2023, at 10:38 AM, Mark Berning < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am reaching out to seek advice and insights on a PDF accessibility
> challenge our school district is currently facing.
>
> In our district, we regularly post PDFs online for both contract bids and
> school lunch nutrition data. The nature of these documents varies, with
> contract bid PDFs often containing hundreds of pages and extensive
> technical data, including graphs, charts, tables, schematics, and technical
> drawings—resembling maintenance manuals for industrial equipment. These
> documents are typically replaced every few weeks with new ones from updated
> contract bids, making remediation a challenging task. I am aware of
> third-party services such as PlanetBids that serve as online repositories
> for RFP documents. However, the documents are still not considered
> accessible.
>
> Additionally, we routinely upload 300-400 pages of school lunch nutritional
> data tables every month. While these are comparatively easier to remediate,
> the sheer volume poses a significant challenge as they are replaced monthly.
>
> Assuming these documents are required to be posted online, do you have
> experience or insights into similar situations? I would greatly appreciate
> hearing about your approaches to posting and PDF remediation.
>
> Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.
>
> Best regards,
> --
> Mark Berning
> Web Developer
> Escondido Union School District
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> x10176
> 760-432-2191